In an online letter he wrote Monday night that was posted on espn.com and dickvitaleonline.com Tuesday, Vitale wrote the procedure was necessary to remove "lesions" on his left vocal cord. But an ESPN statement after Vitale's operation say he'd had "successful surgery to treat ulcers on his left vocal cord."

Now Vitale, scheduled to return to his Sarasota, Fla., home Wednesday, has been silenced. In a podcast Vitale recorded online Tuesday morning, he acknowledged larger forces might be in play: "Maybe it's my penance for driving some of you crazy over the years."

Vitale said he "literally can't say a word" for three weeks — "probably the toughest thing I've ever faced!" — and that his surgeon mandated this specific rehab guideline: "Duct tape, baby, on your mouth!"

But Vitale, 68, won't be forced to become a mime. He'll write out his regular online columns and expects to be back on-air in early February. Jay Bilas, a relative Diaper Dandy now getting a shot at being a P.T.P-er, will fill in for Vitale as an on-air game analyst.

Vitale, who called ESPN's first-ever college basketball game in 1979 and has a contract running through 2013, had never missed an ESPN game assignment.

Passing: Sportscaster Don Chevrier, who called 24 different sports over 35 years of sportscasting, died Monday at his home in Palm Harbor, Fla. The Toronto native, treated recently for a blood disorder, was 69.

His on-air resume included being calling Toronto Blue Jays local TV games from 1977 to '96, hosting Kentucky Derby radio coverage, calling hockey on ESPN, contributing to ABC's Wide World of Sports as well as handling various Olympic TV and radio assignments — including curling on NBC's 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics.

Tuesday, NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol recalled Chevrier's curling calls as "entertaining but reverential" — and called Chevrier, along with Jim McKay, "the two greatest all-around sports announcing talents in North American history."

Says ESPN's Josh Krulewitz on whether Vina, not slated to work on-air until spring training, will return: "We're still evaluating that."

Spice rack: NBC's Pittsburgh Penguins-Buffalo Sabres game New Year's Day will be the first U.S. outdoor game in NHL history. NBC producer Sam Flood will present the first hockey coverage to include a weather reporter as well as aerial shots, which NBC will get from a plane. … An ESPN production facility in Los Angeles scheduled to open next spring will house the 1a.m. ET version of SportsCenter, a show whose versions now all come from ESPN's Connecticut headquarters.

Bowling: ESPN, with 23 of college football's 32 bowls, starts the long march with Thursday's San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

Don't laugh. ESPN, which owns five bowls, usually gets its highest-rated week from bowling over viewers. Last year, five of its bowls drew more than 4% of U.S. cable households — an audience level that tops just about everything else on ESPN except NFL games and the league's draft, Home Run Derby and very few other events.

New this year: All ESPN and ESPN2 bowls will also be streamed live to ESPN's broadband service as well as to cellphones — which proves pageantry can be miniaturized. ESPN doesn't have bowls scheduled opposite Sunday afternoon NFL games, but does have ones opposite NBC's Sunday night NFL games. Says ESPN programmer Dave Brown: "College and pro football have different audiences. Besides, we just want to keep going."

Ancient history: ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt, the speaker at Wisconsin's recent Winter Commencement ceremony, offered historical perspective: "I know this is going to make me sound like the crazy old guy wandering around at the bus stop or something, all right? But when I went to the University of Maryland, we didn't have no Internet! Do you have any idea how hard it was for us to gamble and find porn?" Back then, you had to walk miles through the snow.

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